Louise Easthope

Louise Easthope

Louise qualified as a Solicitor in 2008, specialising in employment matters. Over the years, Louise has advised a wide range of business sectors, including Government agencies, retail organisations, charities, franchises and educational establishments.

Louise primarily supports the department’s busy education team, who advise and guide an ever growing number of schools in the region. Louise has extensive experience of working with clients in the education sector providing full employment law, HR support and updates to all types of schools from local authority maintained primary schools to multi academy trusts and independent schools.

In doing so, Louise prides herself on being personable and reliable in her approach, ensuring that clients feel confident about their options when managing employees.

Louise quickly builds good working relationships with her clients, resulting in her being able to provide technically accurate, relevant and focused advice to that particular client, which she delivers in a timely and friendly style. She has therefore quickly built up an extremely loyal client following.

How can Louise help you?

Recruitment of staff

Disciplinary and grievance processes

Sickness and absence management issues

Discrimination issues

Capability and conduct issues

Redundancies and business restructures

Employment issues arising from academy conversions

Attendance at meetings to support decision making processes

Advising on terms and conditions including the Conditions of Service for School Teachers in England and Wales (The Burgundy Book) and the National Joint Council terms (The Green Book)

Safeguarding issues

Business takeovers and mergers (the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006)

Delivering bespoke training on any area of employment law

Work Highlights

Advising an academy trust in relation to a complex disciplinary investigation involving fraud and covert surveillance

Supporting a Governing Body in relation to a grievance procedure where an employee alleged bullying and disability discrimination

Being commended by an Employment Tribunal Judge for advising on a ‘flawless’ redundancy process

Advising a Governing Body in connection with the dismissal of a member of staff as a result of inappropriate physical contact with a pupil

Advising on the termination of employment of a Senior Leader for underperformance and misconduct issues

Testimonials

" Louise is an excellent solicitor to work with. Her calm, balanced approach made me feel confident in the advice she was giving me. Louise is reliable and efficient, always returning calls promptly and responding to emails.

Louise has a friendly manner and this enabled me to feel comfortable in discussing concerns with her; she could see my point of view but was able to gently tell me how the law works. As an employer, it is sometimes easy to feel frustrated during a difficult situation but Louise guided me through, reaching a prompt resolution which was fair and to the satisfaction of all parties.

Whenever I ever need advice in the future, I’ll be calling on Louise!"Paula Martin, Headteacher, Firs Estate Primary School

" Louise has provided an incredibly professional source of support for our school over a range of personnel issues ranging from those requiring perhaps only a phone call to others demanding very intensive levels of expertise and insight.

We have always found her to be very approachable, able to demonstrate the required level of empathy for the issues that sometimes confront us and extraordinarily clear when making suggestions for moving issues forward to a satisfactory conclusion for all parties.

Myself and a number of senior colleagues have been particularly impressed with Louise’s attention to detail and the clearly evident depth of her professional knowledge and understanding. I have been more than happy to recommend her to a number of my Headteacher colleagues in other schools."Martin Cain, Headteacher, Blessed Robert Sutton Catholic Sports College

"Louise has supported our academy, and me personally as Headteacher through a complex staff disciplinary issue which was on-going for over a year.

Communication was clear and regular throughout the process with Louise offering balanced and considered advice at each stage along with a thorough assessment of the risks involved for all parties.

With the starting point that our Academy is a ‘Moral Organisation’ the matter was resolved to the satisfaction of all parties and minimal costs incurred.

What Louise achieved was to allow Academy Leaders to continue their focus on the education and welfare of its students, rather than consuming the large amounts of time that disciplinary issues can sometimes take."Martin Ebbage, Headteacher, Kirk Hallam Community Academy